Wolf of the Blood Moon - Book 4 - Chapter 9 - Burnout (Patreon)

                                                            Scarlet

The screech continues to grow louder and louder as I move closer to it, only for the screeching to turn into what sounds like words. But they’re too quiet for me to clearly understand just yet. So I increase the sensitivity of my ears – something I had rather low while in this place since I don’t like being underground with my ears – as I continue walking closer and closer until I can hear them rather clearly.

“MINE!!!!” MIIIIIINEEEEE!!!!” “MIIIIIIIIIIINNNEEEEEEE!!!!”

I blink at that.

Well, that’s not creepy at all.

“It answers what Sin the demon has at least,” Tar comments, and I almost subconsciously nod my head in response as I mutter, “That it does…”

Wasn’t expecting a Greed Sin demon here, but at least it makes things simple.

Kill the thing, take the crystals.

When someone threatens a demon with the Greed Sin’s personal possessions, they tend to lose their minds to their greed if they aren’t very advanced demons like the kitsune. Although as I’ve learned over the last few months, even the kitsune lose control sometimes. Like when one of the Noble kitsune demons decided they wanted to possess me themselves and attacked my guards only to be put down like a rabid dog.

Rather pitiful, but it did serve as a lesson that made that sort of thing only happen a few other times besides that one.

Anyways, the words that are continue getting closer and closer until a giant beetle begins rampaging down the tunnel towards me, its eyes flashing an eerie green the moment its eyes lock onto me as it screams, “STAY AWAY FROM MY PRESCIOUSES!!!!!”

Again. Not creepy at all.

|Vyxylor – Tricidic Beetle – Level 601|

Well, on that note, I sent my Blood Shadow rushing forwards as we both use Life Drain, Blood Boil, and all of our other ranged skills on it, making the thing begin letting off little waves of blood as it charges through the blood chains trying and failing to bind it in place. But right when I’m about to start using Blood Empowerment on Life Drain, I realize something and instead use it on Blood Thirst, making a massive amount of power fill me from the over a hundred stacks of Blood Thirst I have built up all being increased in efficiency at once.

My eyes widen at the beautiful rush it gives me as I seriously question why I never considered doing this before, only to throw that thought to the wayside as I make use of this high – and that’s really the only way I can describe it – to break the sound barrier and clash directly with the giant beetle’s mandibles. And just as I expected, the creature holds strong, but it doesn’t manage to push me back either, the boost from Predator V and Blood Thirst being enough to make us a match for each other. Which is certainly saying something considering how it’s an entire Class and a hundred levels above me.

“MIIIIINE!!!!” The creature shouts again, all of the intelligence it may have had not being there anymore in the slightest as its Greed fully controls it, making the creature begin to stand up on half of its legs – the back half – as the rest of them make creaking noises and shift around to better match arms instead of legs. Then they all swarm towards me, only for my Blood Shadow to intercept them really quick.

But my Blood Shadow doesn’t have the Blood Thirst boost that I have, so it only manages to send them off course before getting sent flying in the process.

I ignore my Blood Shadow as it struggles to get up, instead focusing my attention solely on the large beetle whose mandibles are starting to let off a little smoke from the electricity making contact with it from Crimson Overdrive. And I don’t hesitate to burn more and more of my blood, activating Blood Sacrifice on top of Crimson Overdrive, which has me grimacing in extreme discomfort as entire droplets of blood form on my skin from the burnt blood. But the pain – part of which I’m diffusing with Pain Diffusion – is worth it since it gives me the strength I need to lift the beetle partially into the air before slamming it into the ground to stun it. Then I yank my right clawed hand back and send it flying straight towards the creature’s head while using Metallicized Blood to create a blade of blood metal sticking out of my knuckles that I stab straight into the thing’s head.

The beetle lets out a shrill screech filled with pain as its body convulses all over, knocking me from side to side in the process until I twist my arm once and rip the blade out, making the creature finally stop moving.

And as soon as I get the System Message telling me that I can’t gain EXP while at the level cap and the message about skills leveling, I collapse onto my back while breathing heavily, completely drenched in my own blood as if I were sweating buckets of it. Until I use the clean skill on myself, that is.

Despite my pain, despite the fact that I can barely breathe with how little blood I have left right now, me having burnt way too much of it to do that, I can’t help but grin up at the ceiling as I lie flat on my back panting hard enough that I’m sure I won’t able to say anything for a little while.

“You pushed yourself a little too far that time,” Tar comments, sounding a little annoyed. “Any more than that and you might’ve ended up burning all of the blood in your body and killing yourself.”

Yeah, sorry about that. I learned my lesson about using Blood of Ruin underground in an enclosed space when I almost drowned myself with my own blood a few weeks ago. So I didn’t think there were really any other options to take it down.

Plus it did the job rather quickly, wouldn’t you say?

Tar sighs before lying down next to me as we both wait for Blood Regeneration to regenerate enough of my blood for me to continue moving again. In the meantime I just have my Blood Shadow, that is still alive somehow, watch over us.

“Just try to be more careful,” Tar mutters, but he doesn’t sound mad. Just a little worried.

Roger that, captain tanuki.

He snorts.

Now if only I could transmute blood with blood pull, then this blood loss wouldn’t be an issue.

Instead I have to wait.

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